Thursday, January 31, 2008

Here is a lot of lovely media (magazine, comic book, TV animation) from 1949, 1952 and 1969 -- all about one of the masters of cartooning, and a personal favorite of mine and just about every boy cartoonist: Walt Kelly.

Above: a local TV listings book from what year I don't know, but isn't that a lovely portrait of Mr. Kelly and Porkypine and Pogo? I have a small trove of photos of cartoonists on the hard drive, and this one deserved to be seen. I just didn't include any background information with it. The mag probably commemorated the 1969 POGO SPECIAL BIRTHDAY SPECIAL, co-directed by Chuck Jones, with voices by Les Tremayne, June Foray, Mr. Jones and Mr. Kelly.

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Bill Hoest was one of Hefner's favorite cartoonists. Even so, Hef couldn't buy all of Bill's output. I bet this cartoon was first turned down by Playboy before it made the rounds.

And what output: Bill was not only a major magazine cartoonist, but he also was syndicated in Parade Magazine (Howard Huge), and National Enquirer (Bumper Snickers), as well as helming a number of comic strips (Agatha Crumm, What a Guy!), of which The Lockhorns survives today, syndicated in over 500 papers. On top of this, Bill served as National Cartoonists Society president. He won NCS Division Awards for syndicated panel (twice) and gag cartoons. He passed away in 1988.

Some background on Humorama:

LAUGH RIOT was published by Humorama. Humorama published a variety of "mags men like," all risque back then in the 1950s, 60s and 70s -- tame nowadays. They had titles like JEST, GEE-WHIZ! BREEZY, GAZE, JOKER, STAR, SNAPPY, and others. They had bawdy stories, racy cartoons, and photos of loose women in loose attire -- wink wink nudge nudge.

Mark scans not only the front, but also the back of the original, where we can see there are words written and then crossed out, and there are other little marks ("47%") and stamps with the name and address of Humorama.

Here's my take on those marks:

A lot of the gag cartoons that ran in one magazine, might be republished years later in another one of their mags. Sometimes you can make out a history of where the cartoon was published by reading the back of the original. I'm guessing, but it looks like this Bill Hoest cartoon was bought for the February 1966 issue of LAUGH RIOT magazine, then reran in JOKER magazine (May 1972?). I couldn't tell if "Gags for Stags" was the name of yet another magazine or just the department that it appeared in. All my searches for "Gags for Stags" magazine turned up nothing.

If anyone else out there has copies of these mags or a better working knowledge of the markings on the back, please me or Mark know. I'd love to hear from you.

From Sandra Bell-Lundy's Between Friends blog comes a great piece of insider information on the syndicated strip business titled Developing the Strip. For anyone wanting to know the relationship between editor and cartoonist (in this case, it's Sandra and the late Jay Kennedy of King Features), this is a pretty raw look at the development period; a time when the writing and the look of the fledgling strip is hammered out.

"A big problem I seemed to have was not drawing my characters in a consistent style. Jay frequently pointed out hair and nose and neck length discrepancies."

She reproduces comments that Jay wrote on her early efforts.

Above: Jay's comments on noses -- written and drawn by him.

It was interesting to hear that the sales team recommendation ("One day, Jay called me and said the sales people had suggested that I feature Helen more often as she was an African-American woman and it would help make my strip more diverse.") was taken during this time, resulting in a new character.

This is the fifth installment of Sandra's "road to syndication" series.

The wave manga is currently expected to descend on Europe.In Japan, which is already a social phenomenon: everyone reads manga, the albums cover all the possible topics, in every style imaginable.This part of the documentary series "Comix" discover the universe and the methods of work of three very different authors.Usumaru Furuya workshop works with a team to produce a series of action as the soap opera "Pi".Jiro Taniguchi, l'auteur de Jiro Taniguchi, author of "Neighborhood distant," also works in a workshop, but his approach is more introspective, more intimate.Finally, the young Kiriko Nananan creates alone, a new form of manga specifically designed for girls.

Related: French cartoonist Olivier Martin lives and works in Japan for two years, soaking up manga style in this 3 part film: part one, part two, and part three.

Above: top: Kirk dresses down the shore leave party from the TOS episode The Trouble with Tribbles; bottom: same scene, but slightly altered, from Trials and Tribble-ations, a 1996 episode of DEEP SPACE NINE. Notice a couple of DS9 actors sandwiched in that line-up now. Image from the Ex Astris Scientia site.

Monday, January 28, 2008

This booklet is from a series made by The Mental Health Society of Chicago for the Western Electric Company. The cartoon art looks like it came out of any big advertising firm in the early 1960s. Once you rip away the funny art, I agree with Johnny: it's the same good management skills that people are told now -- except with PowerPoint bullet points instead of fun cartoons!

My friend Mark Anderson has some cool toys, and occasionally, he shares with others. In this case, he has a set of pin-up cartoon playing cards by an unknown cartoonist. All the cards, each with its unique color gag cartoon, are there to click through and enjoy.

Go read my comments and see if you can add anything to ID the mystery cartoonist. Or, just ogle the fun good girl art!

UPDATE: Thanks to a fellow cartoonist who emailed me, the man who drew those cards is most likely Bill Wenzel! Wenzel was a prolific cartoonist for The Kinds of Magazines Men Like. Thanks, Mac, for shining the light on this.

I've been getting some emails asking how I price my magazine cartoons. Is there a formula based on magazine circulation? Do the magazines set their own price? What about the Web?

The major markets have a set price for their cartoons. If you sell a cartoon to, for instance, The New Yorker, they won't call you up to ask how much you want. They all ready have a price for you. The same with Playboy and other major markets. But, you all ready know all this.

When I began magazine cartooning, it was simple: look at a couple of issues, get a feel for their audience and mail appropriate cartoons.

After a while, I had sold some cartoons, but there were still other cartoons, sitting in a pile, unsold. They had done the rounds, and been rejected. How do you turn them into money?

I went to a big newsstand and looked at the magazines. I went to the downtown Brooklyn Business Library to see what kind of business publications they had. An amazing selection! There was a magazine for and about board members. I had cartoons about board members. There was a magazine for veterinarians. I had dog and cat cartoons.

So, I started a new challenge for myself: I mailed cartoons to magazines that did not use cartoons at all.

Yeah, most of the time I was wasting my time and postage. (Yeah, I mail my submissions on paper.)

But some of the publications were interested, and some wanted to buy. And the editors asked what I would charge.

What is the value of your cartoon?

Well, of course, decide if you will work for free. Will you give away your cartoons? If so, then you know your answer is that you will work for the exposure.

If you give your cartoons away for free, you will not make a living as a cartoonist. There are many talented people out there who are giving away their work on the Web, and most of them have to work full-time in jobs other than cartooning.

I show my cartoons for free on my Web site. I think this is just normal business. It doesn't bother me if someone wants to copy one of my cartoons for their friends. But it's wrong if a publication (print or Web) thinks they can just grab a cartoon for free content.

So, when editors asked about my rates, I decided I would not work for free. I want to be a real, working cartoonist. I had a minimum set in my head and if they balked, then I would walk away. This isn't posturing, this isn't being unrealistic. This is me making a living.

If an editor says,"We are looking for free content."

I tell them, I can't afford to give away my work for free.

Sometimes, I lose the client. And the client is worth losing, since they do not recognize that cartoons -- along with the freelance writers, the designers, the photographers -- everyone contributing to the content of a publication -- deserves to be paid.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Hello, and welcome to some risque cartoons circa 1966 from the book TABOO. This is a collection of cartoons that were considered unpublishable and it was edited by Charles Preston who is alive and well and editing the WSJ cartoon. This is the part. The first part of this entry is here.

"Draw me and try for a free two-year scholarship."

Above: The first of several from S. Gross. Gosh, imagine the upswing in enrollment at the Center for Cartoon Studies if this girl went door to door!You can definitely see the Addams influence in Sam's early work.

"Can I return this get-well card? She died."

Bo Brown's cartoon is great. Such a seemingly pedestrian couple of women in a benign looking picture. The gag line makes it all so hostile and funny.

"Is this where we take the 'A' train to Harlem?"

Above: a number of cartoons concerned the KKK.

"Damn the consequences! If they want her that bad, they can have her!"

Above: I'm a fan of Al Ross' loopy, sketchy style. It almost looks to "rough" to be a final finish!

Did anyone notice what happened to Al Ross' signature in the column of signatures from the book's cover?

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

TABOO, an 88 page hardcover collection of gag cartoons, edited by Charles M. Preston, Trident Press 1966, New York, New York. Above is the dust jacket. Click to supersize so you can read the six gags ...

"Let's go out and count phallic symbols"

There are a number of censored cartoon books that are now in print, but this was the granddaddy to them. Most of the cartoons are not so edgy today, natch! A lot have to with racism, homosexuality, and, well, potty humor.

"And as you'll probably notice, I wet my bed."

From the cover:

"For the first time, an outrageous collection of iconoclastic hilarity -- these cartoons, hitherto considered unpublishable, mark a significant point in the struggle against censorship and prudery (and they're funny too)."

"Why, it's Ann Stalkley! I haven't seen you since we were in school together. How in the world do you keep yourself looking so young?"

The above cartoon made me laugh out loud. It's those pooch lips on Ann Stalkley that did it. A great, busy, sketchy city scene. I think I know who the cartoonist is, but I am not sure.

Above: an early Sam Gross cartoon.

"And after a long hot dusty nightride, I find Brito washes my robe whiter than white."

Above: Herbert Goldberg's cartoon isn't funny to me. It looks like to be a rough.

"Holy Moses!"

Above: Henry Martin's cartoon is silly, but it made me smile. I love what he does here with very basic lines and a touch of graphite on pebbled paper.

(Whenever I think of Moses, I think of the Mel Brooks bit from THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD PART 1.)

"It's a God."

Above: more holy humor. Seems harmless to me! Three little words is all it took to make a good gag -- made even better by the dead-on look of holy beatitude by Joseph.

Above: Interlandi's silent gag and excellent figure work seal a wonderful cartoon together. The look of realization on both of their faces in the penultimate panel is masterful.

Above: the hardcover has a column of cartoonists' signatures on the front cover. A great design touch! And something I didn't notice until today, when I took the dust jacket off the book!

From the series CNS: After Dark, produced by students at the Graduate School of Journalism at UC Berkeley. The program runs 28 minutes. Mr. Turner's segment begins at 24:46. Kids, you should have given him some more air time!

"Both 'Shoe' and 'Hager the Horrible' strike us as having run their course. Your first task, as Comics Contest voters, is to decide which of the two will get the ax."

There is no further description of the criteria for a strip "running its course." And then Ms Belman asks readers to pick one of the four strips below to replace the "run their course" strips:

The nice thing about this is that Tony's a friend and it was cool to see his lead character there, on the front page of one of the local papers. His strip is just this month being launched by the Washington Post Writers Group. The nasty thing is that his strip, IT'S ALL ABOUT YOU, the new kid on the block, is competing with older, better known strips. Here are the 4 strips in competition:

• Stone Soup by Jan Eliot

• Rhymes with Orange by Hilary Price

• Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller

• It's All About You by Tony Murphy

And, of course, polls are the absolutely wrong way to go. They are degrading, unscientific and an abdication of the editor's responsibility. Then-National Cartoonists Society President Rick Stromoski wrote about why this is in a letter to the Hartford Courant in October 2006. Here's a link to what he wrote from the Daily Cartoonist Web site.

Factoid: when a strip is on "trial," the paper usually does not pay for the use of the feature. And the syndicate doesn't compensate the cartoonist.

As Tom Spurgeon wrote in today's Comics Reporter:"It was created in 1929 by cartoon juggernaut Jimmy Hatlo, was nationally syndicated starting in 1936. Bob Dunn followed Hatlo on the feature and Scaduto followed Dunn, giving the strip a strong creative continuity during its multiple decade run."

And I agree, as Tom writes further, that it was surprising that King would pull a feature that had over 100 papers. But, there was no one who could do it like Al Scaduto.

Al was the last of the bigfoot cartoonists -- guys like Rube Goldberg, Elzie Segar and Milt Gross (who Al knew). Perhaps it's fitting that the 79 year old feature ends with him. There is, sadly, no one around to fill those big feet.

Above is a photo of Al and me, taken a year ago. As some of you know, I had the honor of being the Chapter Chair of the National Cartoonists Society Long Island Chapter for a while.

I was pretty nervous about being the ringleader of what's called the Berndt Toast Gang; a legendary group of Long Island cartoonists. Getting up to talk about chapter business, in front of the likes of Scaduto, Giella, Drucker, Orehek, Sy Barry and others, was daunting. I tried not to let it show. the first couple of months I had that whole I'm-not-worthy feeling.

Out of the blue, Al Scaduto called me after a get together. Since I was still on the Long Island Expressway (or, the Long Island Parking Lot, due its reputation for gridlock), he'd leave a message, telling me how much he and his fiance Claire enjoyed themselves at the BTG lunch. And he always thanked me for being responsible for such a relaxed atmosphere at the get togethers.

To get a phone call like this made me feel great. Al was always a gracious gentlemen. He would always ask after me, and my wife, and ask how things are going. And he would listen to the answers.

Al was very much part of the heart of the Gang. He will be missed.

Above right: a small selection of a large number of originals that he brought in last year to show the Gang.

A hat tip to Journalista! where I first saw mention of the CT Post article.

Monday, January 21, 2008

A personal note to say thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday this weekend. To my pleasant surprise, my birthday was noted on some chat boards and Comics Reporter.

This is my 1001st posting on Blogger, and I thought I'd share the above drawing, signed "Mike Lynch '76" that was mailed to me by my old friend Phil, some 32 years later.

I first met Phil in 7th grade, back at White Station Junior High in Memphis, TN. He made junior high a lot more tolerable! Thanks, Phil! When I moved away, we stayed in touch during our teenage years. And then, we stopped writing. A couple of decades later, Phil found me via the Web. We've been in touch since then.

The above bit of embarrassing Lynchian juvenilia is from a letter I wrote him when I was 14 years old. All these years later, STAR TREK and drawing are still the two big whoopee cushions in my sofa of life ... along with, of course, Mrs. Lynch, and Roo and Sam and Trout!

And a big thanks to all of you out there. I never knew I had so many nice folks who took time to type a happy birthday sentiment. Gee whiz. Thanks.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

From The Original Series (or, if you prefer, The Old Show), here are two bumpers that NBC would place to let you know that "tonight's Star Trek will continue in a moment." Bumpers are the names for these little snippets of music and picture to keep you from going to the fridge or the potty.

Related: Some 42 years later, once again, Leonard Nimoy's voice over reminds you the viewer that STAR TREK is coming soon in this, the first theatrical trailer for the 2008 STAR TREK movie. The trailer came out on Friday, the movie is scheduled for December 2008. More at this Trekmovie link.

One of the nice things about cartoons is that you can sneak in something personal that only you will know about. In this case, it's Rufus.

Please allow for a big digression here where I tell you about Rufus, and how I was wrong and my wife was right.

Above: our beloved Rufus, snuggled in Stacy's fiddle case.

Rufus, or "Roo" for short, is a big, lumbering orange, stripy cat that is built like a bull. Although seemingly bred for combat, he lives for love. He's a very large sweetheart of a feline that loves to be talked to, and receive copious pats upon his huge head and his thick, fleecy tummy.

He was, like all of our three cats, a rescue. Rufus was found, tied to a broken down building with a urine-soaked string. A woman who was passing by, snipped the string and took him away from that building in Red Hook. She took him to our vet's, where he was fed, cleaned up, and put in a cage in the back room. Around his time, we were looking for a new kitty, and we'd gone to the vet's.

"Have you seen the orange cat with the large head?" a vet tech asked.

So we sat in one of the exam rooms with the cat that they all called "Big Head." His head was rather large, but not abnormally so (i.e., none of that the-front-part-of-the-cat-tips-over kinda physics here). He sat motionless on wife Stacy's lap. We talked and patted him a bit. He stayed motionless. After 5-10 minutes, he pooped. Right there on her lap, he pooped. Enter vet tech with towels, apologies and an offer to whisk the cat away.

"Oh, no,"said my wife.

I think she started loving the cat right then and there. I was not in favor of the cat who had obviously never been properly socialized. Stacy theorized that he was near feral and scared (shitless). This was a cat who needed a good home to become a good kitty.

So, we adopted Bighead. We brought the problem cat to our home, where he hid behind a bookcase (living room) or under the bed (bedroom). He would only come out in the dead of night, making his presence known at3am by knocking over the garbage. Garbage, he thought, was where the food was. Amazingly, he used the litter box right off.

Well, after a couple of weeks of us talking to him under the bed, and him just staring, staring, staring back at us, Roo began to walk out a little bit. And he watched us with our other kitties back then: Bertie and Max. He watched us talking to them, playing with them. Bighead stared. He was taking it all in. It took a while, but he began to perceive that our place was a place where kitties were patted and no one was beaten or hit or tied up with a string -- well -- then he relaxed.

One of the first things he did was begin to sleep. He slept like the dead, for what seemed like a month. I guess he had never really relaxed before. Heaven knows what life was like in Red Hook.

Anyway, so I like to draw Rufus. From time to time he makes it into a cartoon and from time to time that cartoon will sell. One of the reasons I like him is his stripes. Rufus has those stripes on his face that makes him look worried, regardless of his mood.

One of the things that he had to "learn" was playing. I don't think he ever played before. Thanks to our guys (especially Max), Rufus learned to play -- that it's OK to swat, run & wrestle in fun.

Hence, the cartoon. I told you we'd get to the cartoon!

This cartoon was drawn nearly three years ago. It was submitted 15 times to other markets and other clients. It sold this past fall to Harvard.

Although, sadly, our kitties Bertie and Max have passed away, Rufus has two new playmates -- both rescues -- named Sam and Trout. I better sell some cartoons featuring them or jealousy will read its big head!

Today's Factoid: Some of the cartoons are in B&W, some are in color. The editor will ask for color. It's not up to us cartoonists.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Congratulations to my friend and fellow cartoonist Stephanie Piro upon her winning the Illustrator of the Year award by the Cat Writers' Association for her great illustrations in PAWS FOR THOUGHT: UNDERSTANDING WHAT YOUR CAT IS THINKING written by Anne Leighton. She also won a Certificate of Excellence for her illustrations for another book: 101 COOL GAMES FOR COOL CATS written by Elissa Wolfson. Both books are available in European bookstores, and online via the Cat Lovers Club.

And Stephanie's own book, full of wonderful cat cartoons, MY CAT LOVES ME NAKED, also received a Certificate of Excellence.

I went thru a period of using charcoal and conte crayons. My wife says she likes this period a lot, but it was a pain to control the line, and, well, of course, you can't really erase anything.

But, now that I see it again today, I do like the swirly, swooshy effect going on in the above panel.

The second cartoon below, which appeared in Barron's, I drew with a one of those Micra Pigma pens. A small one. A #2 I think. You can see that some of the line reproduction is weak. I need to up my line strength.